New educator feeling a little discouraged

[SewHeather]

Hi All!

I am a RN with 3 years of experience in OB and have recently been hired at a for profit college with the vocational nursing program. I was originally hired for a per diem clinincal intructor position but during the process of being approved, a full time position opened up and it was offered to me and I decided to take it.

It had always been my long term goal to get my Masters degree in nursing and then start teaching, but I never expected to be hired while I was in the process of getting my MSN. I decided to take this job because it would 1) get me in the education field 2) it was a daytime position that would alow me more time with my family 3) there was virtually no change in how much money I made. It seemed like a no-brainer.

Now that I have been working there for about 8 weeks, I am beginning to wonder if I have made a terrible terrible mistake. They hired me knowing that I had no experience teaching, but yet gave me absolutely no training or orientation. I spend hours and hours of my own time making lectures and exams for areas of nursing that I have never worked in, thus I have very little idea of what I am talking about. After spending hours on my lectures, the DON came to me 5 minutes before starting my last lecture and informed me that I have had several complaints and my test scores are not good and that I needed to change my way of lecturing today. The other teacher keeps throwing me under the bus because I'm low man on the totem pole and don't know any better.

I'm used to working with a group of nurses that know how to work as a team and will help each other out. This is completely foreign to me and I feel so isolated and alone. My mother and aunt (both teachers) keep telling me that the first year is the hardest and it gets better, but I'm really having my doubts. I have been thinking of lookin at getting back into the hospital. Does anyone think I'm overreacting? Is this the norm and I just need to stick with it, or is this completly OK?

Also the students are pure evil. I feel like I am teaching a group of 7 year olds and not adults that are in college and paying money out of pocket to be there.

Signed,

Completly overwhelmed and bewildered.

p.s. I have also had to drop out of my Masters program because I cannot do both at the same time since I am spending so much of my own time on grading and lectures.

[mambonurse]

Hi Heather,

I am a new nurse instructor and was thrown in to a course with no materials. The person whom I replaced took all lecture notes and materials when she left. I want to say that while it was VERY hard to make it through my first semester and I cried everyday from the overwhelming work and frustrations...I would never change my decision.

I did, however, have the support of a wonderful team of educators and a great DON! I say all this to say...if you feel teaching is your calling stick with it. Perhaps not at this particular place.

One thing that will make your interactions with the students better will be to be honest with them. I am a OB Nurse and I always tell my students that while I may be an expert in my area they may be more knowledgable about other areas or specialties. ( I teach the LPN to RN students so they are all currently nurses) I also let them know "I don't know everything, about everything" but I will be sure to research questions that may come up if I don't know the answer.

I hope that you stick with it!! Good luck to you!

Sandra

[shah]

You need to assess, what is your first priority. Do you need this job? Do you want this job? Can you go back to the hospital? How bad do you want your masters degree?

The first rule is if you are so unhappy, you should not be doing what you are.

Secondly, if you really want to teach and teach at a good school, you will need your masters degree, so if you don't need this job for economic reasons, and can work at the hospital, why not go back, get your masters and make the hospital pay for it. After getting your masters, you could go anywhere teach pretty much at any college or hospital.

What I am seeing is that the faculty is very defensive. They don't even have Bachelor's degrees. Now you com along with a Bachelors and a Masters in the works. You are a threat to their job security. They want you to fail. I am wondering, how much the faculty are a part of the campaign against you?

As far as students are concerned, you will always get the 2% who will be from hell. It is only human nature. The students will try to manipulate you, trick you, lie to you, tell on you. They will make vague allegations on the evaluations like:" She was incredibly offensive." You just have to develop thick skin.

It will get easier after a semester or two. Remember, you need to learn in order to teach.

I almost quit my masters degree plans during my first 2 semesters as a teacher, but then I realized I had to learn to teach. If you are not sure teaching is for you, get a clinical degree. That way, if you like teaching you could teach, if you did not, you could go the clinical track.

[dorimar, BSN, RN]

I am a new nursing educator too (at least I consider myself so, I have only been teaching a little over a year). I almost got out of education all together due to the time involved and my struggle with whether or not I could teach them what they needed to know to pass a standardized test like NCLEX (I had no worries about being able to teach them good practice). The hours I spent on work were unreal. Every night after work and every weekend every day always reading and writing.

However, I am so very glad I stayed. I feel I have made a true impact and am making a real difference. It is everything I wanted to do.

I would recommend leaving that school, continuing with your MSN and NOT giving up on education. You can find a better place after you complete school.

[Otessa, BSN, RN]

SewHeather,

I am so sorry you are having such difficulties. The students are one of the reasons I have chosen to educate in a non-academic setting plus it feels farther removed from the bedside (for me).

Have you asked for assistance as a new educator? You may need to squawk a little and come in with solutions to the difficulties you are having i.e. have a mentor assigned to you, classes regarding classroom management or curriculum planning-SOMETHING!

They have just thrown you to the wolves and you have nothing protecting you!

otessa

[bookwormom]

My sympathy for your situtation! I apologize if you have already addressed what I am going to say. You said in your first post that you were writing your own lectures and exams. In my experience, most nursing textbooks come with online powerpoint lectures or lecture outlines and test banks--sometimes more. Have you been given access to these resources? If not, consult the textbook representative and ask to be given access (these resources are usually online). You can still tweak the lectures and exams to suit yourself, but they can be a tremendous asset.

[sallypz]

Wow!! My sympathies. It sounds like you unintentionally bit off a little bit more than you could chew. I started teaching at as community college vocational nursing Clinical Instructor last semester. Despite the fact that my clinicals were only two days a week--it was still a huge amount of work--lots of clinical assignments to read, comment on etc...then too, I like to have some focus for each clinical--last semester since we were in a LTC facility the focus was Gerentology--normal aging vs the Frail Elderly--common meds and conditions in the elderly, teamwork, and moving from a CNA thinking mode to a more professional thinking mode--so that made designing the clinical experience a little more challenging and time consuming. I, too ran into one student that accused me of being "racist" (despite the fact that we're the same color)--it gave me quite a shock--and cause to for self-examination---that was until I found out that when any instructor corrected her of anything she retorted with the same accusation of "racism". Her defense mechanism---not my actions. The rest of the students were a pleasure.

I wanted to teach in a classroom setting also. So this Summer I did. Just today completed an 8 week course teaching CNA's at a community college. Despite the fact that it was "only CNA's" it was still a lot of work. The classes were 4 days a week, 4 hours a day. After class every evening until about midnight I'd be preparing for the next day's class. It was exhausting. Luckily the textbook came with a set of power points for the instructor--and I had resources to obtain some more colorful ones---and the school had a nice library of videos to use in conjuction with lectures. The instructors resources for the text also came with a test generator program that was a great help. I don't think I'd have survived it if I hadn't had some background in teaching--Long, long ago, before my nursing life, I took a couple education courses toward a teaching degree for High School Biology (did not complete the degree)--and have done extensive patient teaching of home care skills--and taught a few lectures in a CNA course about 15 years ago--I called upon all that experience. I. too, put my work on a MSN degree on hold for the summer because I knew even an 8 week first timer, full time teaching job was going to be a Bear. This, too, is suppose to be as college course...the students are college students, get 7 college credit hours for the course, and have taken other college courses previously.....but I agree, I was surprised at the level of immaturity of many of the students....one, in particular gave me a bad review on her instructor review, however, she was angry because she did badly on a test...a take home test that they had a week to do (could use their book and ask friends for help, or do as groups) she didn't do half the test, got a bad grade, then was angry at me for her bad grade on the test. Duh..kid....if you don't do half the test your grade on the test will show that!!!

I think you're showing signs of a bit of 'burn out' (it sounds like you also have a whole lot of other stresses in your life that are leaving you emotionally drained right now too). Perhaps what you need to do is take a short time, step back from the work situation and regroup yourself. Kudos for even trying a semester of teaching. But now, catch your breath and regroup. Think about it..is the classroom teaching situation what you want to do at this time? You know you could always go back to your original plan..teach only clinicals while you go for your MSN. Even at the same school if you want.. You simply have to tell the school something, too much life stress right now for classroom teaching, or it doesn't fit in with your own school schedule....whatever...you know if you don't want to you don't even have to tell them how upset the classroom experience made you... Or perhaps you might want to look into doing something like I'm doing....teaching CNA's while I go for the MSN. (My next semester of teaching I hope to resume my MSN studies). Simply find out what is required by your state to teach CNA's....you might have to take a short CNA Teacher Training course like I did before the state certifies you to teach CNA's. I look at it this way...even though I'm 'only teaching CNA's' it's still classroom teaching experience.

Good luck. (Didn't intend to make this so long) I hope you find the right path for you. And like I said, Kudos for all the work you did...you did not fail..try to think of it as just an experience on your learning curve.

[Carrollrn]

hang in there sewHeather.

I been

in your situation and it will get better

carol

[AOx1]

I see a few ways in which to help make a future in nursing education easier.

First, consider adjuncting at other facilities, perhaps taking a clinical group in your area of expertise. This will help you to build your skills over time and to assess whether the facility is a good fit.

Seek out a mentor, someone with the traits you wish to develop as an educator.

Consider going to conventions/continuing education that will help you develop your skills. Donna Ignatavicius has a Nurse Educator boot camp that is quite useful for both novice and experienced educators.

Just as you wouldn't throw yourself at the first available nursing job (I hope), take the time to carefully consider and find a school that is a good fit. This school shows several worrisome traits, as far as I am concerned, including a lack of mentoring, lack of other educators with advanced degrees, and lack of comraderie. It is even more dangerous, in my opinion, to toss an inexperienced nurse educator out into practice than it is to do so with a new orientee in the hospital. As a nurse educator, you must supervise an average of 10 students in the clinical area, and know what they are doing with ALL of their patients. This is not an easy task.

Finally, students will often "test the waters" when they see that there is a new instructor. I am kind, but with high expectations. I will not budge on matters of patient safety. When they see this, most fall in line, but some will always try to rebel. The important takeaways are as follows:

1. It is rarely personal. Just as a rude physician rarely reflects on the nurse, a rude student is usually acting out their own personal issues.

2. Following from number 1, we don't "cause" students to succeed or fail, they do. All we can do is offer educational opportunities, guidance, mentorship, etc. The students must avail themselves of this. See "You can lead a horse to water..." for more on this.

3. Teach the students you have, not the ones you wish to have. We ALL wish our classrooms were full of only those who want to learn, have a passion for learning, a calling, the drive and intelligence, etc. We don't. A small minority will excel no matter what you do or don't do. They have the native intelligence and drive to exceed expectations. Another small minority will fail no matter what you do. They may lack insight, maturity, knowledge, or perseverance. This may simply not be the right time for them to be in school. In some cases, they chose nursing by default, and don't really want it. The rest are somewhere in between. If you are in the right environment, the students will bring you great joy, frequent minor annoyance when they don't live up to their potential. They will make you love your job most of the time and want to throttle them a small portion of the time. I view education as a chance to positively affect the next generation. The majority of the time, this is an honor. Occasionally, it makes me want to run away from home. This is normal.

4. Building on #4, most people I've met who wish to be educators are a little, um, nerdy. I don't know how to put it nicely, and include myself among the proud nerd patrol. We believe in the educational process, we love to learn. We sometimes expect others to desire knowledge for its own sake, just as we do. This isn't the case for the majority of students. Many are driven by more practical reasons, such as the need to make a living. This is also fine. Just realize that many educators would want to learn just for the joy, while others view education as a means to an end.

Excuse the long, rambling post. These are all realizations I have come to after years of teaching. If you are in the right spot, teaching is mostly joy and hard work. If not, it can be horrible. Where you are sounds horrible, but that doesn't mean that you won't find a great job.

[afjgnp]

Don't want to repeat what has been said....I just graduated with a minor in nursing education(my specialty is as a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner). I agree. The thing is I have great faculity and chair. My first day there was no orientation- I had never taught formally before. My second day one of my students raised her hand and said "when are they going to teach you what you need to know?" I've done this for a year and a half ...3/4 of the kids are great. The others,...and yes I agree you have to teach the students you have. If I give them my right arm, they want my other arm and both my legs too. This week the college had monday and tuesday off for winter break. I happened to check my phone ay 11pm thursday and I got a voicemail from a group of students asking "Where are you?" At the start of the semester the students got a schedule of weekly topics. Under this week in bold letters FEB 23 WINTER BREAK -NO LAB. I get some assignments in pencil after stating that in nursing we chart in pen(says this in syallabus).

I got into this because I wanted to stay in nursing I love being a nurse. After working as a nurse for 5 years,I was dx with MS. Nursing didn't want me. I went back to school,got my BSN, MSN through MS attacks, thyroid CA, hypoparathyroidism and now Crohn's Disease. Between the fall and the now I have missed 8 weeks of work. It is a strain on my co workers and the students. It is not true that those who can't do-teach.

I wish you the best of everything!

[nurseebol]

I taught clinical nursing for 8 years and loved it. I was not mentored either. Weird huh? I was laid off and I miss it terribly. You don't know what you have until it's gone. Now there are no nursing jobs around. Just my experience.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

I've taught for over a decade at quite a few schools I took a job teaching at a different school this past year, in my specialty. I have a degree in education and a Masters in Nursing. Over the years I've learned that any time a person takes a new job, there's a tremendous learning curve the first year, even when you know the basics-or-more in the field. It doesn't matter if you're an expert. You go back to novice whenever you start a new job. If you don't know the basics, it's worse. Then, when you start a new job in a new field, "I'm a novice" is a huge understatement. The learning curve is HUGE!! Teaching nursing is wayyy different than doing nursing!

Teaching requires huge amounts of time for preparation and evaluation of students' work. The first time you teach a course, multiply the "usual" by about 3, as far as time-input goes.

Add to that having no mentor and no help as you learn the job. That's a terrible position to be put in! My heart goes out to you! You're in an awful situation. If it was me, I'd be developing ulcers or thinking about flinging some things against a wall.

The fact that the school is paying you similarly to what you earned as a nurse is a big red flag to me. First time nursing instructors, without MSNs don't usually earn as much as RNs. This says to me they needed you and wanted to be competitive to get you. Once they had you, you were left to do the job--maybe no one there CAN help you because they don't know what they're doing???

"For-profit" can raise a red flag too. Some for-profits are nurse-mills and just want to get the tuition (so they make a profit!) and force instructors to pass and please the students so they can stay in business. Sometimes students know it doesn't matter if they do the work--they know they'll pass anyway. So, the problem-students are free to exercise their acting-out behavior. Is this school accredited? What's its reputation in the area?

I'm sad you gave up your MSN. I hope you go back to it. Teaching clinicals at a school that's accredited and has a good reputation, while working as an RN, while you work on your MSN might be the way to go. That gets your foot in the door and gives you experience teaching too.

It's normal to have a few students that drive you to drink. As the teacher you're responsible to try your best to get them where they need to go. They're responsible to make good effort to get there too. I've had some students who shouldn't be nurses for all sorts of reasons. Overall, though, students want to learn and do well, especially if they're paying out of their own pockets... I've had quite a few students I'd trust with my life or the lives of those I love. I'm sure, if you continue teaching, or take a break from it and go back to it later, you'll have those awesome ones in your classes too.

I wish you peace as you face this. I do think this school could be a negative influence on your quality-of-life if you continue with it.